Data import with the INSERT statement

Use the INSERT statement to add rows to the database. Because the import data for your destination table is included in the
INSERT statement, it is considered interactive input. You can also use the INSERT statement with remote data access to import
data from another database rather than a file.

Use the INSERT statement to import data when you:

want to import small amounts of data into a single table

are flexible with your file formats

want to import remote data from an external database rather than from a file

The INSERT statement provides an ON EXISTING clause to specify the action to take if a row you are inserting is already found
in the destination table. However, if you anticipate many rows qualifying for the ON EXISTING condition, consider using the
MERGE statement instead. The MERGE statement provides more control over the actions you can take for matching rows. It also
provides a more sophisticated syntax for defining what constitutes a match.

For immediate text indexes, updating the text index after performing a bulk load operation such as INSERT on the underlying
table can take a while even though the update is automatic. For manual text indexes, even a refresh can take a while.

Consider dropping dependent text indexes before performing a bulk load operation such as INSERT on a table. After you have
loaded the data, recreate the text index.

Changes are recorded in the transaction log when you use the INSERT statement. If there is a media failure involving the database
file, you can recover information about the changes you made from the transaction log.